Updated weekly, listed chronologically.
Friday Seminar
Friday May 5, 2023
2:30 PM (HST)
In-person: Bilger Hall 152
Zoom: https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/97713800943
Meeting ID: 977 1380 0943
(no passcode required)
“Simplifying habitat complexity“
Speaker: Joshua Madin, PhD
Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology
Research Professor
Josh Madin is a Research Professor at the Hawai’i Institute of Marine Biology on Moku o Lo’e. He leads the Geometric Ecology Lab who mix theory, technology and fieldwork to address ecological questions. Josh will talk about a new geometric theory that unifies how habitat complexity is measured and is applicable to any system at any scale. He will demonstrate applications of the theory to coral reef biodiversity, biogeography and restoration.
Friday April 28
2:30 PM (HST)
In-person: Bilger Hall 152
Zoom: https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/97713800943
Meeting ID: 977 1380 0943
(no passcode required)
Competition and resource partitioning between congeneric coral-dwelling scorpionfishes (Sebastapistes spp.) in Hawai‘i
Speaker: Ryan Jones
PhD Candidate
Exposed coral reefs in Hawai‘i are largely dominated by the small branching cauliflower coral (Pocillopora meandrina), which supports diverse communities of fishes and invertebrates. Two of the most common fishes that reside in these corals are the Speckled Scorpionfish (Sebastapistes coniorta) and the Galactic Scorpionfish (Sebastapistes galactacma). These small nocturnal reef mesopredators use the complex branching morphology of cauliflower coral as protection during the day and feed in and around their host corals at night. Despite their apparent ecological similarities, these species coexist locally, at times even co-occupying the same host coral. Surveys of cauliflower coral communities around O‘ahu revealed inverse depth distributions, with Galactic Scorpionfish found across all depths surveyed, though more commonly in deeper reef areas (> 11 m), while Speckled Scorpionfish almost exclusively occurred in shallow reef areas (5 – 10 m deep). These species also used microhabitat in subtly different ways, with the larger species (Speckled Scorpionfish) being more associated with coral colonies with wider spacing between branches. Reciprocal removal experiments across depths, among clusters of corals, and within individual colonies suggest that competition between these species is not currently occurring, and recolonization experiments showed that colony characteristics played a large role in determining which species recolonized corals. Diet analyses using both visual examination and DNA metabarcoding of stomach contents revealed that Speckled Scorpionfish and Galactic Scorpionfish have minimally overlapping diets with significantly different compositions, though both species typically consume small crustaceans that co-occur with them in cauliflower corals. Further, the diets of these species did not significantly differ whether they co-occurred or not, suggesting that these species have evolved different diets, possibly due to past competition. Thus, these species partition food and microhabitat resources to a degree that presently allows for their coexistence on reefs in Hawai‘i.
Friday April 21
2:30 PM (HST)
In-person: Bilger Hall 152
Zoom: https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/97713800943
Meeting ID: 977 1380 0943
(no passcode required)
Vision and Bioluminescence of Marine Crustaceans
Speaker: Tom Iwanicki
PhD Candidate
Friday April 14
Tester Symposium
Friday April 7
Good Friday!
Friday March 31
2:30 PM (HST)
In-person: Bilger Hall 152
Zoom: https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/97713800943
Meeting ID: 977 1380 0943
(no passcode required)
Following bonefishes in Hawai‘i: Connecting the dots from ocean to table
Speaker: Keith Kamikawa
Marine Biology, PhD Candidate
Advisor: Dr. Brian Bowen
Hawai‘i is home to the Indo-Pacific round jaw (Albula glossodonta) and the endemic sharp jaw (A. virgata). These species’ hold cultural, recreational, and commercial value in Hawai‘i and it is important to fill various data gaps in their life history. Our understanding of bonefish site fidelity, habitat use, population structure and effective conservation measures is based on limited information in Hawai‘i. First, leptocephalus larvae were captured by light trap in Kāne‘ohe and Maunalua Bays and aged through otolith analyses. Leptocephali ranged from 28-72 days old and 54-66 mm. The mean age of the larvae was 48.8 days, indicating high dispersal ability. Tissue samples from larvae and over 300 fin clips, collected by volunteer anglers from O‘ahu, Maui, Kiritimati and Anaa Atoll, were used to determine population structure within the Pacific Ocean. Results showed Anaa and Hawai‘i exhibiting distinct genetic stocks and Kiritimati with admixed individuals. Lastly, a survey was conducted of bonefish anglers to understand their motivations and preferences. Of the anglers that keep bonefish for food, they prefer fish over a four-pound threshold. Comments also revealed anglers’ attitudes towards current management and competing demands. Aligning biological and social information regarding bonefish life history is critical to update fisheries management tools and promote responsible fishing practices.
Friday, March 24
2:30 PM (HST)
In-person: Bilger Hall 152
Zoom: https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/97713800943
Meeting ID: 977 1380 0943
(no passcode required)
Effects of a Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience: A case study of Our Project In Hawai‘i’s Intertidal (OPIHI)
Speaker: Dr. Joanna Philippoff
Assistant Specialist, College of Education
Undergraduate research experiences, where students not only engage in the scientific process but are socialized into the scientific community, are important to fostering students’ emerging scientific identities. However, undergraduate research often involves intensive support. Most labs can only support a limited number of undergraduates due to the mentoring associated with novice investigators. This study examines some of the effects of a Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) called Our Project In Hawai‘i’s Intertidal (OPIHI). CUREs engage cohorts of students in research projects in a more controlled and collaborative environment than typical undergraduate research experiences. The nested configuration of OPIHI, where mentoring responsibilities are spread over a number of collaborators, may serve as a model for addressing a critical gap in opportunities for students to fulfill research credits required by many natural science departments to graduate. What began as a grant-funded internship but has since transitioned into a dedicated section of 499 in the UHM School of Life Sciences. This talk will share the structure of the OPIHI program; some of its highlights and challenges; and findings from a study on its effects on students’ ocean literacy, scientific identity, and connection to place and community. The presentation will also pose questions on the program’s future.
EECB Seminar
Friday May 5, 2023 at 11:30am
ZOOM ONLY
Zoom: https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/96009864516
(passcode: EECB)
“Non-Academic Jobs Panel”
EECB is hosting a Non-Academic Jobs Panel on Friday, May 5 featuring scientists working in industry and private sector research jobs. This is open to anyone who is considering work outside academia, and it includes an open Q & A session.
Friday, April 28
11:30 AM (HST)
In-person: Gilmore Hall 306
Zoom: https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/96009864516
Passcode: EECB
Applying for a federal job: USAJobs and federal resume
Speaker: Workshop-style
Friday April 14
Tester Symposium
Friday April 7
Good Friday!
Friday, March 31
11:30 AM (HST)
In-person: Gilmore Hall 306
Zoom: https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/96009864516
Passcode: EECB
The First ~100 million years: Insect evolution before dinosaurs, mammals, or flowering plants
Speaker: Dr. Sandra R. Schatchat
UH Mānoa Plant and Environmental Protective Services (PEPS)
Dr. Schatchat earned her PhD at Stanford University as a Coleman F. Fung Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellow. Her research interests center on insect evolution over large time scales. She uses herbivory found in plant fossil record, extant insect morphological data, and stable isotope composition to understand how evolutionary history informs adaptation.
Friday, March 24
11:30 AM (HST)
In-person: Gilmore Hall 306
Zoom: https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/96009864516
Passcode: EECB
Wetland restoration, biovectors, and mercury cycling in Nova Scotia, Canada
Speaker: Dr. Nelson O’Driscoll
Acadia University, Nova Scotia, Canada
Dr. O’Driscoll is a professor in Environmental Science, and leads the Mercury Lab in Acadia University where studies have focused on the relative sensitivity to mercury accumulation that some ecosystems have. Much of his recent work has focused on methylmercury accumulation in invertebrates. He has collaborated with several organizations around the world on food web projects.
Special Seminar
Monday, May 8, 2023
11:30 AM – 12:25 PM (HST)
In-Person ONLY: WEBSTER 203 ST. JOHN 011
“The evolution of complex metazoan body plans: Insights from comparative molecular embryology studies in marine invertebrates”
Speaker: Athula H. Wikramanayake, PhD
Professor and Chair of Biology
University of Miami
Animals can be divided into two broad clades based on their body plans. Over 95% of extant animals belong to a single clade of bilaterally symmetrical animals called the Bilateria, and the four extant early emerging taxa that have relatively simple body plans are lumped together as “non-bilaterians”. The evolution of complex bilaterians from relatively simple ancestors remains an enduring unsolved question in biology, unlikely to be solved by theories invoking developmental origins of bilaterality or increases in genomic complexity because these traits predated the origin of Bilateria. We have proposed that a key developmental event that led to the diversification of the Bilateria was the radical shift in the localization of critical upstream regulators of the Wnt/beta-catenin (cWnt) signaling pathway from one pole of the primary egg axis (animal-vegetal axis) to the opposite pole. This change may have been critical for the separation of neural cell fates from endomesoderm (cell lineages that give rise to internal tissues such as the gut, muscles, and internal organs), and the evolution of the anterior-posterior axis and cephalization. These traits were most likely key to the success of the Bilateria. To begin to reconstruct the cell biology of this critical evolutionary change in egg polarity we are focusing on the regulation of the Dishevelled (Dvl) protein, a central regulator of cWnt signaling. Dvl is enriched at the animal pole in cnidarian (Nematostella) eggs and at the vegetal pole of echinoderm eggs, and we have shown that cWnt signaling and endomesoderm specification are induced by the localized “activation” of Dvl. I will discuss our ongoing studies in echinoderms and cnidarians aimed at understanding if spatial shifts in the localized regulation of Dvl by its interacting partners may have played a role in the redeployment of cWnt signaling along the AV axis during bilaterian evolution. I will also discuss our ongoing studies to understand the evolution of Wnt signal transduction.
Monday, April 24, 2023
11:30 AM – 12:25 PM (HST)
In-Person: WEBSTER 203
Zoom: https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/96535365793
Meeting ID: 924 5409 3505
Passcode: mbseminar
“A cross-scale approach to understanding global change in the ocean”
Speaker: Brian Cheng, PhD
Marine Biology search Candidate
Wednesday, April 19, 2023
11:30 AM – 12:25 PM (HST)
In-Person: WEBSTER 203
Zoom: https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/96535365793
Meeting ID: 924 5409 3505
Passcode: mbseminar
“Fishes, functions, and the future of coral reefs: examining the drivers and consequences of ecological change in reef fish communities”
Speaker: Simon Brandl, PhD
Assistant Professor
The University of Texas at Austin
Marine Science Institute
As the combined effects of local and global human impact transform coral reefs worldwide, their associated fish communities are in jeopardy. By integrating across space, time, and various levels of biological organization, I will highlight recent patterns of change in reef fish communities, their organismal drivers, and their ecosystem-scale consequences. I will focus on small, bottom-dwelling species that are typically overlooked in our monitoring efforts, but play an important role in the complex architecture of coral reef ecosystems
Monday, April 17, 2023
11:30 AM – 12:25 PM (HST)
In-Person: WEBSTER 203
Zoom:https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/96535365793
Meeting ID: 924 5409 3505
Passcode: mbseminar
“From next door neighbors to beyond ocean basins: Thermal and nutrient gradients effect organismal to ecosystem functions across spatial scales”
Speaker: Nyssa Silbiger, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Biology
California State University, Northridge
Coastal ecosystems persist in highly heterogeneous environments, and this variability drives organismal processes that will ultimately scale up to affect ecosystem functions. For example, temperature alters metabolic rates in corals, such as photosynthesis and respiration, which will lead to changes in net ecosystem production on a coral reef. In the first part of my talk, I show that natural gradients in temperature and nutrients affect multiple thermal performance metrics of corals and urchins across spatial scales spanning tens to thousands of kilometers. In the second part of my talk, I demonstrate that nutrient gradients from submarine groundwater discharge affect organismal metabolism, species interactions, and ecosystem calcification and production rates across a spatial scale of meters. My results highlight the incredible plasticity of organismal responses to thermal stress and eutrophication across multiple spatial scales and how those responses scale up to affect ecosystem functions. Further, my research demonstrates the importance of using in situ studies to better understand the effects of local and global anthropogenic stressors in the context of natural variability.
Botany and Zoology Graduate Proposal Symposium
Thursday, April 6, 2023
10:30 AM – 1:00 PM (HST)
St. John 007
Please plan to join us for our 2023 Graduate Proposal Symposium on Thursday April 6, to be held in STJ 007 from 10:30 AM – 1:00 pm. Our presenters are excited to share their research plans and they look forward to your feedback.
Monday, April 3, 2023
11:30 AM – 12:25 PM (HST)
In-Person: WEBSTER 203
Zoom Link: https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/9
Meeting ID: 930 7917 6484
Passcode: qbseminar
The Ecology of Speciation and Extinction: Insights from Native Hawaiian Plants and the Global Marine Animal Fossil Record
Speaker: Matthew L. Knope, PhD
Associate Professor of Biology
UH Hilo
Understanding the drivers of the generation and loss of biodiversity is one of the fundamental goals of biology, yet many primary questions about these processes remain unanswered. In this seminar, I will describe how my lab approaches these questions by working at the intersection of ecology, evolution, and conservation biology; with strong emphasis on phylogenomics and large-scale quantitative analyses of the geologic record and the global biodiversity crisis. I will argue that: 1) native Hawaiian plant, animal, and microbe lineages provide an unparalleled opportunity to understand the ecology of speciation and extinction; 2) that combining the study of the marine animal fossil record with the study of extant species is key to understanding the ecology of speciation and extinction at the global scale; and 3) that examination of these processes from the local to the global scale provides reciprocal insights that are only made possible by bridging across these levels of biological organization. I will present results that demonstrate that state-of-the-art phylogenomic methods can help resolve what have until recently been intractable questions about the ecology and evolution of rapid plant adaptive radiations in Hawaiʻi and elsewhere, but that a detailed understanding of geologic history is also necessary to gain these insights. I will then describe our results from the global marine animal fossil record that have given novel insights into the role of mass extinctions on the structure of taxonomic diversity, ecological differentiation, and body size evolution in the oceans; and how the modern biodiversity crisis has no direct analog in the fossil record. I will conclude by decribing my vision for research, teaching, and community engaged learning at UH Mānoa, which are all driven by the aim to lift up our greater ʻohana through intentional community building and providing a strong sense of belonging for everyone.
Wednesday, March 22
11:30 AM (HST)
In-Person: WEBSTER 203
Zoom: https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/92277603855
Meeting ID: 922 7760 3855
Passcode: qbseminar
Embracing the complexity: Statistical phylogenetic approaches to studying plant evolution
Speaker: Carrie M. Tribble, PhD
School of Life Sciences, UH Mānoa
The study of systematics integrates diverse fields of biology including taxonomy, computational biology, genomics, and natural history collections. My research uses these approaches to address fundamental questions about the evolution of tropical plants. In this seminar, I will discuss two major research areas: (1) What processes govern the generation and distribution of tropical biodiversity and (2) are seemingly convergent morphologies produced through similar anatomical and molecular modifications and do they perform similar functions? In recent work, I inferred the previously recalcitrant relationships of a rapid and recent Andean plant radiation and used these relationships to demonstrate how geological perturbations like Andean uplift shaped the origins and movements of species in a biodiversity hotspot. I have also found that underground storage organs of plants have different developmental origins and that these differences mediate distinct organismal relationships to the environment. I will discuss my future research program on developing new tools to infer generalizable processes mediating biodiversity accumulation across the Hawaiian flora and on identifying macroevolutionary processes that drive convergence across levels of biological organization. Finally, I will share my vision for professorship at UH Mānoa, including teaching, community partnerships, and collaborative research.